Gas Safety Week
Gas safety week is coming up starting 17th September, so now is an ideal time to ask:
When were your gas appliances last serviced?
Legally, if you are a landlord or responsible for a business – the gas system including boilers and flues and any gas appliances must be serviced annually by a qualified & Gas Safe registered engineer.
It is also highly recommended for all other gas appliances (in your home for instance) to undergo these safety checks / a service, even if there is not a requirement by law to do so.
These checks are imperative to ensure the safe working of your appliances and ensure dangerous fumes are not allowed to escape inside your premises where they can cause harm. In 2015, there were 53 deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning (Source: Office for National Statistics).
Symptoms of this are things like: Nausea, Headaches, Breathlessness, Dizziness, Collapse and Loss of Consciousness.
Gas Safety Check
A thorough service will check things like:
- Are appliances correctly set and adjusted to ensure the gas is burning correctly?
- It is securely fitted and properly connected to the gas pipework?
- Is there an adequate and permanent air supply suitable for the appliance type installed?
- All flues or chimneys are operating efficiently.
- All safety devices are fully functional.
- The combustion gasses which will be analysed to ensure the appliance is burning gas safely.
- Seals / gaskets are effective.
It is important to ensure any engineer who is working on your gas system is suitably qualified and Gas Safe registered – they should be able to provide you with their registration card which you can verify. It is your responsibility to confirm competence of those carrying out work in your premises.
Gas Safety Certificate
A landlord in Blackburn has recently been prosecuted for failing to maintain his gas appliances and failing to provide a Landlords Gas Safety Certificate for a number of years – which are required by law, there was a related improvement notice which the defendant failed to comply with also.
He guilty to breaching Section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and breaching Regulation 36(2) and Regulation 36(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. He received a 20-week custodial sentence, suspended for two years, was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work and to pay full costs of £4,146.34.
Health and Safety Audits
Stay safe, stay legal. Get in touch with us and we can offer Health and Safety Audits to support your business to ensure you are compliant and avoid a costly prosecution which could severely affect your reputation as a business.
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